Huge water reserve discovered in Kenya

Fantastic!<p>Let&#x27;s concoct some overly optimistic growth statistics for how this will stimulate the Kenyan economy. Let&#x27;s say 19% for the first 10 years, then 15% for 10 more, then 12% for the next five.<p>Based on those fudged figures, we&#x27;ll convince the government to take on excessive debt to pay for water development, etc. projects. Since the figures are fudged, and since we&#x27;ll do this hand in hand with local elites &#x2F; kleptocrats, they&#x27;ll never be able to repay the debt.<p>We&#x27;ll funnel this money right back to Western consulting and construction firms.<p>When locals who are having their lives destroyed by the development projects start to demonstrate, we&#x27;ll squeeze them until they turn to violence and call them terrorists.<p>When the real international terrorists join in to fight the evil imperialists (us), we&#x27;ll drone-strike, death-squad, and black-site them, citing our earlier failure to act in Sudan.<p>Can you tell I&#x27;ve been reading _Confessions of an Economic Hitman_? I am excited about the new iPhone, though.

I don&#x27;t claim to understand African issues very well, so take my comments with the grain of salt that I&#x27;m very ignorant.<p>The civil wars that happen in certain African nations are troubling. But what was more troubling to me was reading news how factions would take control by poisoning wells that provided water for citizens. It was unthinkable to me that someone could actually do that, especially in certain areas where water was scarce. Long-term effects seemed to be ignored in favour of short-term war gains. Having never experienced such a difficult situation, I can&#x27;t process what kind of motivation and thinking could cause such horrific action.<p>If such water supplies are found in areas where there is conflict, I worry that it only would add to the conflict, as they would be found as key tactical points to conquer and hold. It makes me sick that such good news brings such negative thoughts to my mind.

Exclusive rights on this reserve bought by Nestlé in 3.. 2.. 1..?<p><a href="http://www.worldcrunch.com/poisoning-well-nestl-accused-exploiting-water-supplies-bottled-brands/business-finance/poisoning-the-well-nestl-accused-of-exploiting-water-supplies-for-bottled-brands/c2s4503/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.worldcrunch.com&#x2F;poisoning-well-nestl-accused-expl...</a>

I wonder if Kenya&#x27;s relative underdevelopment (compared to both western countries and farming countries like India&#x2F;China etc.) is the reason this aquifer has remained undiscovered for so long.<p>Nonetheless, I hope the people of Kenya will learn from the mistakes of those other countries when it comes to sustainable utilization of aquifer water instead of the indiscriminate use we&#x27;ve seen elsewhere.<p>Links:<p>NASA analysis of India&#x27;s fast-depleting groundwater, including aquifers: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/india_water.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nasa.gov&#x2F;topics&#x2F;earth&#x2F;features&#x2F;india_water.html</a><p>Economist piece on acquifers drying up around the world: <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17199914" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;node&#x2F;17199914</a>

That&#x27;s great news. The aquifer is below a dry and poor region of Kenya, so I really hope that the government will be able to use the water to develop the region.<p>This region will also have the LAPSSET transport corridor built in a few years. Put together, I&#x27;m feeling very positive about the future.

Very good news that it is replenished from mountains and thus is not a fossil aquifer. Should make it easier to manage.

in this follow-on article (<a href="http://www.itv.com/news/2013-09-10/potential-significance-of-discovery-cannot-be-overstated/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.itv.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;2013-09-10&#x2F;potential-significance-of...</a>) there are a few more details on how Alain Gachet discovered the aquifer:<p><i>He takes existing satellite, radar and geological maps of the area and layers them on top of each other to create one all-encompassing study of what lies beneath the soil.</i>

This is certainly great news for the people of Kenya!<p>I&#x27;ve always wondered how they estimate how long a water resource can last. In this case, they said 70 years. But does that take into account the increased usage&#x2F;population the area will get now that it has more water? It seems to me that the water needs are ever growing, while the water source stays relatively the same.

What ticks me about such announcements is that too often they don&#x27;t really mean anything besides the media blowing things out of proportion. This is unfortunately very common in anything nutrition or health based, but often applies to scientific &quot;breakthroughs&quot; as well. The media picks up some vague research result and hyping it to make headlines.<p>I just really hope this is not the case here, because it&#x27;s truly good news for a dry region where water means everything.<p>This, along with the large recent oil and natural gas discoveries kind of makes me wonder how many such additional surprises the earth crust hides, that will be discovered soon due to much better discovery technologies and computational resources.

Anyone know how aquifer sizes are measured? I would guess a sonar based system.

I am amused by the comments on this post and even the story itself.Kenya&#x27;s <i>primary</i> problem is not a lack of water.Around 70 percent of the land is rich with multiple rivers,which is why it is one of the leading producers of Tea and Coffee.Only some parts of Northern Kenya,around Lodwar have dry spells .Western Kenya has the opposite problem:flash floods that usually occur around April and March.<p>Corruption and poor management of resources are the major headaches facing the country,not droughts.

Groundwater will become an increasingly important resource, and it will be especially critical in a region that experiences periodic droughts like East Africa. Kenya faces a water crisis, and water cuts were not uncommon even for those with access to tap water when I lived in Kenya around the turn of the millennium (I don&#x27;t know how it is now).<p>However, because of its perception as a common-pool resource—land owners think they are entitled to the water beneath their land—groundwater management seems to me to present a particular challenge. Are there any success stories in sustainable groundwater management that Kenya could look at? Kenya does have the framework for managing water resources, but it&#x27;s a question of implementation and political will. Control over resources seems to often end up in the hands of influential individuals who operate with impunity.

I lived there for several years so I must say this is exciting I can only imagine how they feel, There are so many undiscovered territories on mother earth I&#x27;m just glad there is people out there not giving up on humanity and do what it takes to solve the big problems.

Finally, some positive news out of Africa! Let&#x27;s hope we (both local governments and groups, and Western &quot;aid&quot;) don&#x27;t screw this up.<p>I&#x27;m not familiar with the Kenyan political climate, so if anyone else has some experience or knowledge about this, could you enlighten the rest of us about whether the government is helping the population as a whole or serves minority interests? Is the country stable? Bordering Sudan, Ehtiopia and Somalia can&#x27;t be easy.

Didn&#x27;t something like this happen in the Left Behind series? African nation gets better irrigation and raises food for rest of nation, or something like that?<p>Granted, Kenya isn&#x27;t barren.<p>Maybe they could build a water park.

What is ITV.com and why is no other news organization reporting this?

Sold to Nestlé in 3.. 2.. 1..

dont think this article suits in HN

I hate to be <i>that guy</i>, but is this relevant?